Hariri, al-

(Abu Muhammad al-Qasim al-Hariri). Born 1054; died 1122. Arab writer.

Al-Hariri was the son of a wealthy merchant. He received a good philological education and later wrote philological treatises in which he attacked the introduction of colloquial speech into the written language. He wrote a divan of verse and a collection of epistles. In a cycle of maqamas, al-Hariri presented vivid pictures of life in the Arabian Caliphate in the period of its decline. An expert on classical Arabic and an excellent stylist, al-Hariri often resorted, in his maqamas, to wordplay based on alliteration, synonymity, and the use of arcane expressions and proverbs. For centuries, the maqamas of al-Hariri were considered a model of artistic perfection in Arabic literature.